On April 5, the U.S. Department of Justice announced a new Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Enforcement Plan and Guidance (“Guidance”). The Guidance purports to create a new framework under which prosecutors may offer reduced fines, deferred prosecution agreements, nonprosecution agreements, or even declinations.

Corporate legal department spend on outside counsel to support M&A transactions continues to surge, according to the most recent iteration of Lexis Nexis’ CounselLink Enterprise Legal Management Trends report, released this week.